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U.S. pays $31 million for development of smallpox treatment
Florida company awarded $31 million to to produce an inhaled version of an existing smallpox drug; Danish company in negotiations with the U.S. to develop a freeze-dried form of its smallpox vaccine
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FDA requires faster food safety reporting
FDA unveiled a new electronic database where manufacturers must notify the government, within 24 hours, if one of their products is likely to cause sickness or death in people or animals
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NYC rabbi teaches synagogue self-defense
Fearing jihadists will attack synagogues during Rosh Hashanah and Yom Kippur, a group of rabbis has developed a program to turn your average shul-goer into a lean, mean fighting machine
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Fifth of jobs U.S. government will fill in 2010-2012 will be security related
In security and protection, there are 52,077 projected hires in areas of intelligence analysis, international relations, foreign affairs, and security administration
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Los Angeles councilman wants ATM "duress code" system
In the wake of Lily Burk’s slaying, Councilman Greig Smith urges citywide anti-robbery effort; under one system, ATM users could enter their PIN backward to covertly notify police that they were being robbed
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Russian security services step up snooping
The heightened interest might stem from authorities’ fear about possible public unrest connected to the economic crisis; in the first half of this year, the secret services filed nearly 77,200 requests for search warrants, more than 66,000 requests to tap phones and nearly 7,800 requests to read mail
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Agro-terrorism threat is real
Tim Downs: “Experts have estimated that for a terrorist group to develop a nuclear weapon could cost them a billion dollars….But to develop a very good biological arsenal you would need about ten million dollars and a very small lab and a master’s degree in chemical engineering”
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Malmo, Sweden, installs new public toilet payment system
If you want to use public toilets in Malmo, Sweden, you must now call or text-message the city’s park service, receive a one-time numerical code, enter that code on the stall door’s touch pad, and have your credit card charged — or you cannot go in
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Businesses seek to delay implementation of E-Verify
A business coalition files suit to prevent DHS from implementing E-verify as of next Tuesday; E-Verify would require federal contractors to verify the legal status of their workers
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Purdue University, 21CSI to pursue homeland security opportunities
The two organizations will collaborate in implementing new decision support tools and processes at the federal, state, and local levels
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Immigration reform without Kennedy
Kennedy dramatically changed the U.S. immigration system with the Immigration Act of 1965, which eliminated the quota system and allowed immigration from Latin America and Asia to increase substantially
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Mexico's Ciudad Juarez is the world's most violent city
With 130 murders for every 100,000 residents per year on average last year, Ciudad Juarez, a manufacturing city of 1.6 million people across from El Paso, Texas, is more violent than any other city in the world
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How effective is CBP in keeping U.S. borders safe?
According to DHS, the vast majority — more than 70 percent — of illegal aliens and contraband attempting to move across our border through official ports of entry will succeed
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Pakistan to build own UAV
Under a program launched this month, Pakistan’s domestic version of the drone or unmanned aerial vehicle to be called Falco will be made in collaboration with Selex Galileo of Italy at the Pakistan Aeronautical Complex in Kamra in Punjab province
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U.S. has a flawed approach to cyber security
Critics call on courts to recognize that obsolete computer systems are a major cause of security breaches; “As the courts probe (the) causative issues, it will become increasingly clear that computer systems’ failure to embed automated alerts is the root problem”
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The long view
Kinetic Operations Bring Authoritarian Violence to Democratic Streets
Foreign interference in democracies has a multifaceted toolkit. In addition to information manipulation, the tactical tools authoritarian actors use to undermine democracy include cyber operations, economic coercion, malign finance, and civil society subversion.
Patriots’ Day: How Far-Right Groups Hijack History and Patriotic Symbols to Advance Their Cause, According to an Expert on Extremism
Extremist groups have attempted to change the meaning of freedom and liberty embedded in Patriots’ Day — a commemoration of the battles of Lexington and Concord – to serve their far-right rhetoric, recruitment, and radicalization. Understanding how patriotic symbols can be exploited offers important insights into how historical narratives may be manipulated, potentially leading to harmful consequences in American society.
Trump Aims to Shut Down State Climate Policies
President Donald Trump has launched an all-out legal attack on states’ authority to set climate change policy. Climate-focused state leaders say his administration has no legal basis to unravel their efforts.
Vaccine Integrity Project Says New FDA Rules on COVID-19 Vaccines Show Lack of Consensus, Clarity
Sidestepping both the FDA’s own Vaccines and Related Biological Products Advisory Committee and the CDC’s Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices (ACIP), two Trump-appointed FDA leaders penned an opinion piece in the New England Journal of Medicine to announce new, more restrictive, COVID-19 vaccine recommendations. Critics say that not seeking broad input into the new policy, which would help FDA to understand its implications, feasibility, and the potential for unintended consequences, amounts to policy by proclamation.
Twenty-One Things That Are True in Los Angeles
To understand the dangers inherent in deploying the California National Guard – over the strenuous objections of the California governor – and active-duty Marines to deal with anti-ICE protesters, we should remind ourselves of a few elementary truths, writes Benjamin Wittes. Among these truths: “Not all lawful exercises of authority are wise, prudent, or smart”; “Not all crimes require a federal response”; “Avoiding tragic and unnecessary confrontations is generally desirable”; and “It is thus unwise, imprudent, and stupid to take actions for performative reasons that one might reasonably anticipate would increase the risks of such confrontations.”
Luigi Mangione and the Making of a ‘Terrorist’
Discretion is crucial to the American tradition of criminal law, Jacob Ware and Ania Zolyniak write, noting that “lawmakers enact broader statutes to empower prosecutors to pursue justice while entrusting that they will stay within the confines of their authority and screen out the inevitable “absurd” cases that may arise.” Discretion is also vital to maintaining the legitimacy of the legal system. In the prosecution’s case against Luigi Mangione, they charge, “That discretion was abused.”